ShareThisAUGUSTA, Ga. - It was two minutes before the telling hour of 2 p.m. here Monday when Tiger Woods would tell all, some, or little.
A cameraman took position along the path Woods was about to walk to his microphone. Two Augusta National Golf Club members, including Ron Townsend, the club's first black member, flanked him.
In came the four-time Masters champion, from the front of the room rather than from a door at the rear where interviewees usually come. Woods shook hands with Townsend and embraced him. Then he continued to walk the plank.
Okay, it was merely a path between the members of the media who filled the 207 seats in the room. Maybe that was conscious, to walk between them and let them have a close look rather than coming in from a more distant point.
The room had gone silent, after much chattering and buzz before Woods made his entry. He'd been in this interview room many times during his 15 appearances at the Masters. That was then.
This is now. And it's all new for Woods. It was new for the media. Who was/is this guy? How to greet him now, 90 minutes after he finished his practice round with Fred Couples and Jim Furyk, who had joined in for the last few holes.
Certain ceremonial songs or genres that could have marked Woods's re-entry came to mind. "Hail to the Chief?" "Honky Tonk Woman?" "I Shall be Released?" "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)?"
"Master of the Universe?''
Well, that's what Woods was not so long ago and still could be come this Sunday -- of the golfing universe anyway -- should he win the Masters. But now, after 45 days of rehab for what is widely thought to be sex addiction, but which Woods said was "personal," and he would say no more, he's trying to master himself.
That, Woods said, hasn't been easy. He said time after time that he's been living a lie. He said he didn't realize that, even with his multiple infidelities, until he went into rehab. He said he was in denial, that his veneer has been stripped away, that the therapy will continue, and that he's "certainly a much better person" for going through rehab.
At the same time Woods demonstrated his uncanny ability to answer a question without really answering it. He answers what he wants to answer. He responds when he wants to respond. That's his prerogative, and he takes it. So he really remains in control of these question-and-answer sessions.
Asked if his wife Elin would be joining him this week, he said she wouldn't. A question that demanded a factual answer got one. The second part of the question was whether her declining to join him means she doesn't support his return to tournament golf just now.
"Well, I'm excited to play this week," he said. He responded. He didn't answer.
Sitting there, I felt I saw a man who has been humbled by his downfall. I also think it's almost impossible to know when Wood is speaking the truth of his heart and when he's dissembling. He's been evasive for so long that it's hard to know when he's spinning and when he's being authentic. In that way this interview didn't feel different than any of the others I've seen the past 15 years or so.
I did have the sense that it must have been hard for Woods to agree to the news conference. I believe Woods is aware that he's betrayed and hurt family, friends and the public. Sure, he waited until his indiscretions became public before opening up to the limited extent he has. But he took every question sent his way, even if he did seem disconnected when asked something that might have invited an emotional reply rather than one that seemed canned and practiced.
So that's something. That's a beginning. Now, it's also true that Woods remains a mystery. He's cold-blooded on the course, and he acknowledged in so many words that he's been that way off the course also.
I obviously have a lot of mixed feelings about what went down Monday. In a way, it's revolting and even repulsive to see a champion golfer who was once held in such high esteem undress himself publicly. It felt pitiful, although I feel no pity for Woods himself. He brought this on. He had to know what he was doing to himself and others, no matter how entitled he felt to the goodies that came his way. Did he never realize that leaving text messages and voice mails with his lady friends might come back to haunt him?
But here he is now, admitting for the first time that he had a "busted-up lip and a pretty sore neck," after he hit a fire hydrant in front of his home that night of Nov. 27 when his private world started to become public. Here he is now, saying he needed five stitches to sew up his lip. But he wouldn't address whether his taking Ambien for a variety of issues, including sleeping problems, was a factor when he crashed his car.
So what did the 37-minute to-and-fro session add up to? My gut feeling is the same as my considered feeling as I write this, two hours after Woods walked out of the room. I don't know him, and we don't know him, except as a winner of 14 majors and many other tournaments.
I just hope he knows himself, or, at least, that he's starting to know himself. There's a human being involved -- Woods, that is. There's his wife Elin. Their two children. His mother Tida.
And maybe there's a new Tiger Woods. A Tiger Woods much like the rest of us, if sensationally so. Flawed, that is. Human, all too human, even if he can hit ungodly golf shots. Now we will see if he can hit them starting Thursday, as he chases his fifth green jacket while trying to put his unsavory past behind him.
(Contact Lorne Rubenstein at rube(at)sympatico.org.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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